Waitrose said it had a ‘very strong Christmas’ as it posted an increase in both in-store and online sales last month.

The supermarket said December like-for-like sales rose by 3.8 per cent on last year, enjoying its highest-ever sales for a single week in the run-up to Christmas.

Waitrose, which has 271 shops across the country, said turkey orders were up 66 per cent on last year, while Christmas puddings sales were up 53 per cent.

A Christmas favourite: Waitrose's turkey orders were up 66 per cent on last year

In the week leading up to Christmas
the grocer also sold 2.7million glasses of wine, 1.8million cocktail
sausages and 85 lorry loads of potatoes.

Waitrose, which is part of the John Lewis Partnership, said sales
through its website rose 49 per cent in the seven days before the big
day, while the number of orders placed online was up 68 per cent.

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The figures come ahead of Christmas trading updates from three of the
country’s biggest supermarkets - Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Morrisons - next
week.

Compared with the same period in 2009, grocery sales were up by 8.8 per cent on a like-for-like basis.

Waitrose Managing Director, Mark Price,
said: 'More customers than ever before shopped across all our ranges
this Christmas, from luxurious festive fare to essential Waitrose
trimmings. We’ve had a very strong Christmas.'

The supermarket said online sales were driven by a strong performance in
wine and flowers, with wine sales more than doubling and flower sales
increasing by 79 per cent compared with last year.

At Waitrose Entertaining, party food saw sales increase 29 per cent,
prepared vegetables were up 44 per cent, while mince pie sales were up
by more than a third.

The strong performance at the
grocer’s online division caused further concern for investors in Ocado,
given the delivery firm sources most of its offering from Waitrose.
Ocado’s shares fell 5 per cent after Waitrose’s update.